VISAKHAPATNAM: A youth from Vizag has conquered Mt Everest. Anmish Varma Bhupati Raju (25) reached the peak of the world’s highest mountain at 5 am on June 1.
“This is the biggest achievement in my life. I cannot express in words how happy I am. Being on top of the world is a feeling like no other. I feel very relieved as the expedition to Mt Everest is finally successful. Our team climbed 8,848.86 metres to reach the summit. I thank each and every individual and company who have supported me morally, emotionally and financially,” said Anmish.
Speaking to The New Indian Express over phone from the mountaineering expedition site on Friday, Anmish said, “Conquering all seven summits in all continents is my aim. Already, I have conquered three of them. I am planning to climb the remaining four at the earliest.”
He said he was the only mountaineer from South India who climbed the summit this season. He conquered Mt Everest in his second attempt after he failed in the first attempt in 2019 from the China side.
Anmish is very much interested in adventure sports. His tryst with mountaineering came in 2017. As he was at a high level of fitness due to his several years of training in martial arts, he was looking for something more challenging. He was initially trained by Adventure Sports Academy at Gandikota. Later, he did a basic mountaineering course at Himalayan Mountaineering Institute at Darjeeling and advanced course at Jawahar Institute of Mountaineering at Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir.
He later got trained under -40 degree Celsius at Ladakh. Before the outbreak of Covid-19, he successfully climbed Mt Kilimanjaro (5,895 metres), the tallest peak in Africa, and Mt Aconcagua (6,961 metres), the tallest in South America.
Lockdown was imposed just after he returned home from both the mountaineering expeditions. He said his expedition to Mt Everest began in the first week of April this year when he reached Kathmandu. After getting the required permits, he left for a 50-day expedition to reach the top of the world.
Animish said initially they were doubtful about the success of expedition when some of their team members tested positive for Covid at the base camp. However, the Nepal government had isolated the infectees and allowed them to continue the expedition.
Owing to adverse weather, some members had to return to the base camp. They had to wait for six days at the base camp 2 due to heavy snowfall. He said they waited patiently and their patience yielded fruit as they finally conquered the summit. Anmish is also a two time winner of the World Kickboxing and Karate Union (WKU) Championship. Representing India in men’s category, he won two consecutive gold medals at the WKU tournaments held in Greece (2018) and Austria (2019).